FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas has been ranked for the first time in the U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Graduate Schools 2006.

The Walton College Graduate School of Business’ full-time MBA program ranked in a tie for 46th place among the top public graduate school of business.

“This is amazing progress for our full-time MBA program and reflects all the investments we’ve made in the program over the past several years,” said Walton College Dean Doyle Z. Williams. “We are thrilled to be in the top 50 public graduate schools of business. Our MBA program is now on the same trajectory of rising in the rankings as our undergraduate programs are.”

In August 2004, the Walton College was ranked in a tie for the top 25 public undergraduate business schools by U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges 2005.

Michele Halsell, managing director of the Walton College Graduate School of Business, said: “This is a great day for the Walton College and the MBA program. A close examination of the data in the rankings reveals that the Walton College is making great strides and shows that we compare very favorably to other MBA programs. For example, our three-month placement rate (finding a job in three months after graduation) is 86 percent, which compares very favorably with the top schools in the country.”

The top 10 private and public schools in the ranking are Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan), Northwestern University (Kellogg), Dartmouth College (Tuck), University of California-Berkeley (Haas), University of Chicago, Columbia University, and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Ross).

The Walton College Graduate School of Business tied for 83rd place among the public and private graduate business schools with these schools: Northeastern University, Pepperdine University (Graziadio), Thunderbird, and the University of New Hampshire.

According to Alan Ellstrand, MBA director and associate professor of management, the U.S. News ranking is the result of a total team effort at the Walton College. He said, “The ranking is a reflection of four key dimensions of quality in graduate business programs: the caliber of our faculty and the quality of their research; the quality of students we successfully recruit and admit to the program; the quality of the educational experience that we provide; and finally, the success we have achieved in placing our graduates in career positions with top companies upon their graduation from the program.”

“We take great pride in offering an MBA program that balances theory with real world applications,” added Ellstrand. “One of the unique features of the Walton College MBA program is the consulting project, in which teams of MBA students work closely with a corporate partner to address a unique issue or opportunity.” In recent years, MBA student teams have worked with Procter & Gamble, Sunbeam, Alltel, Fuji Film, IRI, and Wal-Mart.

Laura Phillips, MBA 2001 and now vice president, Divisional Merchandise, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said: “The consulting project was one of the highlights of my MBA program. It offers students a hands-on learning opportunity and allows them to apply the skills and knowledge acquired in the MBA program to a real world problem. I continually draw on my experience in the consulting project in my day-to-day career.”

Carol Reeves -- the Cecil and Gwendolyn Cupp Chair in Entrepreneurship, associate professor of management, and advisor to MBA business plan competition teams -- said, “Walton College MBA students have attracted national attention with first, second and third place wins in national business plan competitions, demonstrating that our MBA students can compete with students from the top schools, such as Harvard and MIT, and win.”

The Walton College Graduate School of Business not only offers a full-time, one-year MBA program, it also offers a part-time Managerial MBA program, which will be relaunched in the fall of 2005 to be more accessible to students who work full-time. In addition, last fall the Graduate School launched a Professional Master in Information Systems program that takes advantage of technology to reach the working IT professional. The college is also in the process of enhancing its full time MBA program.

 In April 2003, the College announced that the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation will provide $8 million to construct Willard J. Walker Hall at the Sam M. Walton College of Business to house its Graduate School of Business and several research centers. The building will be named for the late Willard Walker, in honor of his success in retail management and contribution to the creation and development of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

“The Walton College’s vision to be a nationally competitive business school is no longer just a vision; this ranking of our full-time MBA program confirms it is a reality,” Williams said.